[hulk75]

some tornament tips to think about
(Most of these refer to the stage of the MTT after the first break)

1. Survival - It's only necessary to survive up to the first break. You don't need to be chip leader, you just need enough chips to be a threat at this point in the game. You'll probably find that you spent the first hour very inactive. As a matter of fact, I think I was under the chip average until I snuck into the top 40 in the tourney that I placed 2nd.

2. Well-times aggressiveness goes a LONG way. "Well-timed" means ALWAYS consider your position when you make a move. "Aggressiveness" means don't be afraid to push your good hands. If your hand is good enough to see a flop at this stage, it is then good enough to raise with. Hence, only play (raise) with premium hands from early position. The selection of hands to play (raise) does increase in late position. There's nothing worse later in the tourney than raising preflop in early position when the blinds are big with a hand like ATs only to have someone slam over the top of you in late position.

3. Don't be afraid to push all of your chips - It is important to play very aggressively when you have a premium hand. In order to become a contender for 1st place, you need to get a lot of chips. This happens through buying the blinds when they are large and doubling up with premium hands.

4. Extract as much value from your premium hands as possible - Too many people overplay their premium hands because they're afraid their opponent will hit a bigger monster on them. They'll bet too much postflop and push their opponent out of the pot - even with a monster. Use probabilities to your advantage to determine the odds of your opponent beating your hand. You need to trap with those big hands. I saw a guy raise 5x the BB when the blinds were 500/1000 with pocket aces (he showed). Of course everyone folded and he likely didn't get the value he should have with a hand like that.

5. Always protect your chips! This breaks down into a couple of parts -

a) Don't raise marginal hands out of position - Putting your chips out there in early position with a hand like ATs is not protecting your chips. You're gambling that no one else has a better hand, or at least is afraid to attack back, with the entire table to act behind you. What do you do if they slam over the top of you? Fold and give up a large amount of chips? Or call and risk your tournament life on a hand that is more than likely dominated? Not a decision I'd like to make, so avoid putting yourself in this position.

b) Calling a large preflop raise - You should never "just call" a large preflop raise. If your hand is good enough to call, then it is good enough to reraise and put the pressure on the original raiser. If you don't feel comfortable reraising with the hand, you should probably fold it. The only exception to this is if you want to slow play a big hand like AA or KK.

c) Folding good late position hands - It may be correct to fold what seem to be good hands with a preflop raiser in front of you for the purpose of protecting your chips. For example, if player 1 in early position preflop raises a fairly large sum and player 2 in midposition calls, do you really think your pocket tens or even pocket jacks will be good after the flop? Since you have an early position raiser and a midposition caller, the best case scenario for you is that your opponents only hold overcards to your tens. And even then, you'd have to hope for a board without any face cards to survive. So in this scenario, it may be best to fold your pocket tens for the sake of chip conservation.

If you can get past break #1, used well-timed aggression, and protect the chips you have, you are well on your way. These are just some quick points to consider. I know they're kinda vague, but maybe they'll get ya thinking. You may or may not totally agree with them, but this is what has worked for me. Take them for what they are worth.

Good luck!

[Texas72]

Great post!!! Some excellent advice and tips here. Thanks for the post!

[2NcCrdPlayer]

as that might be some good info to some i dont believe that is true to a lot of points cause weather your in the BB or SB or middle position the winning cards are not held to any of these spots and alot of bad players think that just because they are in BB and have J9 suited that they should go all-in (scared man's move) cause all your really doing is trying to push the pot and hope if somecalles you get lucky on the flop. I have had AA, KK,QQ screw my alot no matter what position i'm in, so i don't like the all-in preflop people cause all they do is kill everyones chipstack just to find out that their hand was not that great!

[burea1124]

I'd rather make a large raise and win the blinds with AA than get so many callers who will outdraw me. You really want to limit the competition with monster pocket pairs because if people call with hands like 67s, JTs, 22 and hit crazy (set, straight, flush) you might go broke holding on to your Aces. Make it large enough so that only 1,2 people call. When the board looks dangerous, I actually like pushing all-in and not let them see anymore cards if they check to me. If it's like T 2 5 rainbow, then you can extract value by betting medium. That's what I think.

[TDLorg]

Read these tips about a week earlier when i was first starting and most of it just went over my head. Read them again now and I find them really helpful...thanks.

[IvanDrago]

You forgot the number one critcal element of Multi-tournaments. This is the number one most thing you need to do to just stay alive when things start going DEEP... and that is.... to steal blinds. You cannot be afraid to steal blinds. If you play way to tight later in the game most likely you'll get blinded out. And if people notice how tight your playing they should be able to study you and know that hey this is a tight player he will just fold to any raise so you'll notice a lot of guys just min raising against you because your so tight. Never try to regret your moves as well. Just reflect on them and then try to improve but never regret. I'd rather push all in on the puck with 23 and run up to AA then get blinded out. I will never get blinded out, i will always take a chance. Just remember that stealing blinds is critical to staying alive when you get deeper into the tournament.

-Drago

To the End!

[ssmooth8]

With pocket aces definitely I would love to only go up against 1 or 2 players max. Obviously if you just make a call or minimal raise players will catch up to get 2 pair on you. Playing aces slowly is a set to leave the tournament quickly. Odds are you will call a players all in with pocket aces. Don't see too many players happy to lay down aces. I for one would not be happy laying down aces you wanna just show the player the aces. haha regardless if you think u got the losing hand.

[Tazzies]

i agree i have learned to not slow play any monsters anymore, i would rather steal the blinds then leave the torny with a broken hand and chair cause i slow played and 7 3 off suit beats me.. i like to get as many people as out as possible so i can go against 1 or 2 at most when its 3 or more i get very nervous even with pocket aces or kings.

[tbs89]

I really enjoyed reading this, and i feel every bit of it is correct. The only thing i see wrong in this post, is that online players tend to approach the game a bit differently, so sometimes adjustments must be made to fit your opponents playing style!

[Laurie]

I really enjoyed your post and the good advise. I'll look for you at the tables and good luck.